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Clown Ends Up With Steve Jobs’s Personal iPad

We are living in bizarre times. Cows are eating candy instead of corn because of the crop-devastating drought. And now this: While Steve Jobs’s house was undergoing renovation, a man broke in and stole a bunch of stuff—iPads, iPods, and iMac… you know, all the stuff you would expect to find in the house of the deceased Mac guru. The suspect then gave an iPad to a friend of his—Kenny the Clown. For a few months, Kenny used the iPad to provide backing music for his act: he played the Pink Panther theme song and some Michael Jackson classics. He had no idea that he was using Steve Jobs’s personal device. It’s just so picturesque: a clown with his cotton candy hair playing cotton candy music for the cotton candied children on the personal iPad of Apple’s mad scientist himself. I couldn’t resist thinking that this situation was too perfect.

In reality, Kenny the Clown is not the only “clown” with Steve Jobs’s devices. Back when I taught high school, I used to engage my students in a thought experiment to help them understand their place in the world. I would tell them, “Imagine if the few people in the world that invent things and maintain them were all to die mysteriously. How long do you think it would take before the whole world became largely primitive?” I would get puzzled looks. So I would start asking specific questions. “Raise your hand if you own an iPod.” Most kids raised their hands; I raised my hand. “Raise your hand if you understand how it works. If you could fix yours if it broke. If you know how to make one.” Of course, no one raised a hand. “Raise your hand if you know how to sew.” No hands. “Raise your hand if you know how to make cloth from raw cotton.” No hands. “Raise your hand if you could grow cotton.” I went down the list of all the things we use every day and take for granted: microwaves, dishwashers, cars, shoes, plastic everything, books, etc. None of us knew how to make these things, or how to fix them. There are few people in the world that know these things, actually. My goal with the experiment was to encourage the kids to learn something useful. And to realize that living in a first-world country doesn’t automatically make you a first-world person. Most of us are actually cavemen in reality. We have more computing power in our iPods than was used to send men to the moon. And what do we use these devices for? Games, entertainment, facebooking. Not that there is anything intrinsically wrong with these things. I just want to see the youths in this country, and the adults for that matter, get serious.

Kenny the Clown seems like a pretty cool guy. Most Mac users who have heard this story probably think it is ridiculous that he put this “sacred” object to such trivial uses. But we do it everyday. I’m probably doing it right now. Like I said, we are living in bizarre times. None of us knows how very much potential we regularly subject to silly ends. How great our responsibility is for how little we do with the much we have.

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After a prolonged bout with pancreatic cancer, former Apple CEO Steve Jobs passed away. The 56-year-old computing visionary sought to make personal computing accessible to everyone through sleek, intuitive, user-friendly design, but his company, his products, and legacy also struck a particular note with the gay crowd as well. Let’s take a moment to recount five ways Jobs struck a positive chord with the gay community during his lifetime.

1) The Apple Logo – Rob Janoff originally created the iconic rainbow-colored logo in 1977. And though the company dropped the rainbow coloring in 1998, what more alluring symbol could there be than a the visible light spectrum placed onto a bitten apple—reminiscent of forbidden knowledge and irresistible temptation.

2) LGBT-friendly hiring practices – Apple was an early adopter of LGBT-friendly hiring practices and scored a perfect 100 in the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index for offering their employees LGBT-protections, domestic partner benefits, and diversity training—also setting a strong example for other large corporations.

3) Stylish design adapted by homos – According to a 2011 LGBT community survey, gay men are 1.4 times more likely to own an iPhone compared to the general population. The sleek, sexy, design and packaging of Apple products combined with their popularity among artists and designers helped boost their use amongst gay creatives as well.

4) Philanthropy for LGBT causes – Not only does Apple have no history of donating to anti-gay causes, they also famously donated $100,000 to help beat Proposition 8.

5) Appointing Tim Cook as CEO – A month and a half before his passing, Steve Jobs personally appointed Chief Operating Officer Timothy Cook as the new company head. As Cook steers the stock market’s #1 company into the 21st century, he does so as the most powerful gay businessperson in the world.

Re: #5): Whoop-de-doo. Just what we need…more powerful gays, which means more power to the misfits who want us all to be tolerant, but who do not tolerate. You just had to rub that in, didn’t you, Raymond?

Listen hear Grumpy. why do you want to F with me? I am a lot Grumpier than you and I am tired of people attacking me with out cause. Here is something that really gets people riled up
Ron Paul in 2012!
Now say something that is relevant or shut up!

I feel bad for you, not for your political associations (or lack thereof), but never going off the Apple farm. I have never owned Apple products because I prefer to build my own computing equipment. Over the years ive had nothing but positive comments on my machines from Apple users like yourself, one of which lamented how my machine was so much faster than his Mac on the same job. Unlike you, I have now went and bought the Apple iPhone 4S because of reviews and my friends recomendations. I’m sorry to report that the hype doesn’t match my results. Although there are several things I like about it, in most it doesn’t compare to my Samsung Galaxy 4S Android. In all likelihood be my last Apple product. This is also the way I feel about Obama! The results don’t match the hype! I expected a Caddy? We got a Yugo!

I am sorry that your APPLE phone do not work. I have many friends that build their own computers, and they always have problems. I have owned apples since 1982, and have never had a problem with any type of virus or hacking. My computer aint the fastest, but hell Neither am I. My old apple is dependable and I do not have to think twice about it, and that makes my life a whole lot easier. . .
Semper Fi friend

Re #3: point being…? i know homosexuals who still use the old candybar-type phones, with their great monochrome screens. That is currently 1.4 x 4652786575463652357643756 more likely than this straight is?

One more thing interesting to note. Jobs was a liberal but, told Obama that he would be a one term President. He also builds his products mostly over seas mainly in China where they have already ripped him off copying his IPhone and everything else.

How much better would it be had he kept the jobs here in the USA? For one thing, the Chinese wouldn’t have been able to rip him off so easily, and more Americans would be working in high tech industry. Too bad, and so sad.

Union wages?????? While they do increase the cost, OBozo and his government is what is killing jobs in the U.S. Taxes and ridiculous regulations! The U.S. Government is the opposite of King Midas. He turned everything to gold. Our government turns everything to $hit!

Interesting. For over thirty years I worked for a Fortune 50 company. We were union for years while I was there. Then about ten years ago, we decided to “decertify” the union (Teamsters). As a result of that decertification, my wages increased by about 20 per cent, and my pension increased as well. Yes, pension, this company provides a “defined benefit pension” that cost me nothing out of my pocket. So, yes, some companies do pay above union wages, and the company survives. Yes, this is a “mulit-national” company, but it is based in the Untied States, and every thing it sells in this country is made in this country of 100% American raw materials. It can happen.

I’ve worked jobs that required membership in the UAW. I’ve worked jobs that “encouraged” membership in the CWA also known as “Can’t Work Alone”. I’ve worked in other companies that also had unions but were “right to work” states. I’m not disagreeing that unions cost both jobs and increased costs with reduced benefits. What I am saying is that the Federal Government causes MORE jobs to go overseas, more costs to companies, less jobs and less benefits than a union ever will.

Unions are like being attacked by an ankle biter yapper. Government is like being attacked by a Doberman guard dog. I can kick the the damn yapping union.

The USA is in deep doodoo. No Steel mills, No Coal, No Industry. Monsanto is poisoning our food. China is buying up everything in sight. And our debt is astronomical. Our military is becoming weak, shutting down bases, closing the plants that supply them. . People are standing in line for handouts from the gov. We are dependent on other countries for everything. The people are blind and the rest of the world looks on in disbelief as we destroy ourselves.

This post wasn’t really about Steven Jobs…it was about the legacy of invention, and the fact that there are few people in America who can actually invent things and know how to make them work, adapt, fix them, improve them, etc. Today’s youth obviously know how to operate iPads, iPhones, computers, etc., but they don’t know the simple basic things…like growing vegetables in a garden, washing dishes, washing clothes or ironing, sewing, or anything else that “smells like work” because they figure “there’s an ap for that!” I despise Job’s political/social veiws, but applaud his ingenuity and intelligence that made “Apple” a household name that didn’t involve a bowl of fruit. I’m sad that he died at such a young age, but hope that there will be other genius/entreprenurial spirits out there who will figure out what to do when artificial intelligence “goes boom.” One huge EMP blast would take us back 200 years or more. What then, my friends?

I made it point to learn how to do as many things for myself as I could, and I am raising a child who is the same. He is just a kid, but he is learning to actually DO things, rather than just hiring someone to do them, like fixing our home’s air conditioner, replacing a toilet seal, and doing car repair. Teach your kids to do for themselves, so they can in turn teach their kids.